Civil Rights

As we begin a new year, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on USDA’s accomplishments in 2010. Last year, millions of families, communities and businesses across the nation benefitted from USDA’s programs. Even during these tough economic times, working with the rest of the Obama Administration...

Since my first day as Secretary of Agriculture in January 2009, President Obama and I have made resolving USDA’s troubled civil rights record one of our top priorities. Today we have taken an important step forward in this work as the House of Representatives joined the Senate in passing the Claims...

Two weeks ago Secretary Vilsack took a moment to share some of his thoughts about USDA’s sad history on civil rights and the progress we have made to put it behind us. I was not surprised to see the outpouring of thoughts and comments that blog post inspired, including many from USDA employees.

Before I was sworn in as Secretary of Agriculture, I took time to meet with a handful individuals who held the job before I did. I asked them for advice, and two recent Secretaries mentioned that it was important that I focus on civil rights. As I soon learned for myself, USDA has an unfortunate and...